Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,294
30,379



While many had expected Apple to follow last year's pattern and release a developer preview of OS X 10.9 early this year ahead of a summer public launch, the company has so far remained essentially silent about its plans for its next-generation Mac operating system. That silence does not, however, mean that Apple has not been working hard on the project since it first started showing up in web logs last fall.

As spotted by an AppleInsider reader, circumstantial evidence of Apple's work showed up in a WebKit bug report early last month revealing that version of OS X 10.9 in testing was Build 13A451. According to Apple's build number scheme, "13" refers to OS X 10.9, "A" refers to the 10.9.0 version, and "451" is part of a sequential numbering of compiled builds.

federighi_wwdc_mountain_lion.jpg
Apple Senior Vice President Craig Federighi introducing OS X Mountain Lion at WWDC 2012
AppleInsider speculates that the relatively advanced "451" build number as of early May could indicate that Apple would be able to deliver a fairly mature version of OS X 10.9 to developers at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week, although there is no formal evidence for such a claim.

OS X Mountain Lion's initial developer preview arrived as Build 12A128p in February 2012, with Apple releasing several additional builds to developers before releasing it to the public as Build 12A269 in July of that year. OS X Lion apparently spent a longer time in overall development but a similar amount of time in developer testing, beginning developer seeding with Build 11A390 in February 2011 before being launched to the public as Build 11A511 roughly five months later.

Apple had indicated when it launched its first developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion last year that it was shifting to a more rapid yearly development cycle for OS X in order to bring more features to consumers more quickly. But with Apple yet to have begun seeding developers with versions of OS X 10.9 and the company reportedly having pulled engineers from OS X to work on iOS 7, there have been some questions about how closely Apple will be able to stick to its yearly release plan.

Article Link: OS X 10.9 Build Number Suggests Extensive Internal Development
 

Chaszmyr

macrumors 601
Aug 9, 2002
4,267
86
I'm really not even looking forward to this at all. OSX announcements used to be exciting, but newer features like Launchpad and Mission Control do not add anything to my experience whatsoever. Even the under the hood improvements rarely seem particularly interesting anymore. I still get every new version, but that's mostly because I feel forced to for compatibility reasons.

Honestly, without a fundamental change to the way the computer works (something one might expect in an OSXI, not an 10.9), I don't even know what features I would like them to add anymore.
 

-LikesMac-

macrumors 6502
Jun 20, 2010
429
23
Interesting development. I wonder what new things could come in 10.9? I really don't want just more stuff pulled from iOS.

I know this is a far stretch, but it would be sweet if resolution independence ever came to full development. :)

Apple has brought on its own challenge by planning both OS X and iOS major releases year by year.
 

TimUSCA

macrumors 6502a
Mar 17, 2006
701
1,539
Aiken, SC
Wait... so they've been working on OS X 10.9 this ENTIRE TIME?! I thought they just looked at their watches, said "Crap WWDC is in like 3 weeks!!", and then threw some code together.... :rolleyes:

That isn't really the point... the point is that the version they demo at WWDC isn't going to be some early-build beta that still has months ahead of it before completion.
 

TimUSCA

macrumors 6502a
Mar 17, 2006
701
1,539
Aiken, SC
I'm really not even looking forward to this at all. OSX announcements used to be exciting, but newer features like Launchpad and Mission Control do not add anything to my experience whatsoever. Even the under the hood improvements rarely seem particularly interesting anymore. I still get every new version, but that's mostly because I feel forced to for compatibility reasons.

Honestly, without a fundamental change to the way the computer works (something one might expect in an OSXI, not an 10.9), I don't even know what features I would like them to add anymore.

Personally, I consider full-screen apps and Mission Control to be a huge difference in the way my computer works. Just because you don't use these features doesn't mean lots of others don't. For me, it's completely changed the way I use OS X.
 

AfzalivE

macrumors member
Jun 13, 2012
81
5
Can't wait for WWDC! I hope multi-monitor support is better than I'm expecting and hopefully sleep times are fixed. Takes a like a minute for my MBP to sleep even though it boots in 8 seconds.
 

Northgrove

macrumors 65816
Aug 3, 2010
1,149
437
Unsure if you can draw any conclusions from the build number alone. It's high, yes, but it could have been bumped up for quite a while, while a small developer team was working on it, i.e. getting less things done over time although they did indeed of course create new builds for internal testing.

I'm just throwing that out because it's been said Apple has placed OS X developers on iOS 7 to get that one done, due to its rather extensive changes. A smaller team might need more builds in order to get to the same level of features and stability than a large team assuming the builds are more or less bound to time (daily builds for testing or whatever). This is of course depending on how Apple's build system works, but I don't think it's out of the picture.
 

pnoyblazed

macrumors 6502a
Mar 1, 2008
986
403
I'm really not even looking forward to this at all. OSX announcements used to be exciting, but newer features like Launchpad and Mission Control do not add anything to my experience whatsoever. Even the under the hood improvements rarely seem particularly interesting anymore. I still get every new version, but that's mostly because I feel forced to for compatibility reasons.

Honestly, without a fundamental change to the way the computer works (something one might expect in an OSXI, not an 10.9), I don't even know what features I would like them to add anymore.

Be prepared to be amazed with over 200+ new features, again
 

street.cory

macrumors 6502
Oct 13, 2009
379
168
Late November release with a $19.99 price tag.

I'm guessing we'll see a Late November release and a $19.99 price tag in the Mac App Store.

I'm hoping for another release like Snow Leopard that focuses on hardware efficiency, multitasking (eg. fullscreen mode), and maybe a return to Expose (wishful thinking).

I have been fairly underwhelmed using Lion and Mountain Lion as a user. The most stable and enjoyable OS I used was Snow Leopard.

But I'm always willing to pay the $19.99 for the freshest release from Apple!
You can't beat that price for a new OS from Apple!
 

CygnusTC

macrumors member
Sep 7, 2010
80
293
Any ideas what might be in it?

I look forward to a new OSX but this one I don't have a clue what could be in it. Hoping for a great reveal next week
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.